


Northern Lights

by SunGreen70



Category: Whose Line Is It Anyway? RPF
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Whose Line
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 22:30:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1202926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunGreen70/pseuds/SunGreen70
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Whose Line with Ryan and Colin sitting on a rooftop discussing life and natural phenomena. Originally posted to LiveJournal in October 2011.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Northern Lights

“Ryan, it’s _cold_.”

“Wimp.”

“Shut up. I’m going in.”

“No, wait.” Ryan caught the sleeve of Colin’s denim jacket as he started to get up. “Not yet.”

“It must be twenty below.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Col, it’s September.”

“I have thin blood,” Colin grumbled. But he stayed put on the chilled cement, reaching over to pluck Ryan’s cigarette from his hand. He took a drag; then replaced it between Ryan’s fingers.

Ryan looked up at the clear night sky. The rooftop of his four-story apartment building was high enough above the other buildings and the few scraggly trees to afford the only unobstructed view in the neighborhood.

He was also free to smoke up here, which the lease stipulated was not allowed inside the apartment. That rule had nearly prevented Ryan from taking the place. However, it was within walking distance of Vancouver TheatreSports League, and he couldn’t always count on having money for gas. Or on his car starting up when he did. So he and Colin spent a lot of time on the roof. It was one of Ryan’s favorite things to do – sitting with his back against the brick ledge that surrounded the rooftop, smoking and talking to Colin.

Ryan shifted his gaze back to his friend, who was fussing with his jacket collar and trying to pull it more snugly around his neck. A fond smile touched Ryan’s lips. It was amazing to think that he’d known Colin for just six months. But it had only been that long ago when Colin had shown up at the seedy club where Ryan had been doing bad stand up as an opening act, and invited him to audition for the League.

Still, now Ryan could scarcely remember that dull life of working in his father’s fish factory by day and the underground comedy circuit at night, without Colin to talk to and laugh with. It wasn’t worth remembering, he conceded wryly.

Colin took the cigarette again. He smoked only occasionally, and only with Ryan. Ryan watched as he took another drag, then frowned and grabbed the cigarette back. “Stop that!” he ordered.

Colin looked startled. “Geez, settle down. What is that, your last one?”

“I don’t want you smoking. It’s bad for you.”

Colin snorted. “Okay, _Mom_.”

“I’m looking out for you,” Ryan informed him. “I don’t want you getting cancer and croaking when you’re forty.” Colin rolled his eyes. “I’m not kidding. Look, you’re not allowed to smoke anymore. I forbid it.”

Colin sighed. “Are you going to tell me why you’re holding me captive up here?”

Ryan eyes traveled to the sky again. While he was distracted, Colin snatched the cigarette, taking another quick puff.

“Asshole!” Ryan grabbed for it. Colin laughed wickedly, holding it out of reach. Ryan shook his head. He was a bad influence on Colin, he reflected.

“You’re a bad influence on me.” Colin remarked, looking at the cigarette in his hand.

Ryan chuckled. “I was just thinking that.” Colin smiled back. It happened all the time. One of them said something out loud that the other was thinking. Or they said it at the same moment. It didn’t surprise them anymore, but they still got a kick out of it.

“All right,” Colin conceded. “If I stop smoking, then you do too. We’ll grow old together.”

Ryan grinned, picturing it… himself and Colin as old men together. His smile widened as he realized he really could picture it… and what’s more, he knew it would happen. They’d still be in each other’s lives, fifty years from now. Two old men, cracking each other up and never running out of things to talk about. Ryan met Colin’s eyes and from the expression on his face, knew he was seeing it too. They smiled at each other for a moment, and then Ryan snorted, dropping his eyes. “I’ve been smoking since I was fifteen. I’m already screwed.”

Colin just looked at him, eyebrows raised.

Ryan sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll quit.” He grabbed the cigarette and stubbed it out. He left the half-smoked butt on the ledge. He could come back for it later. “There. Happy?”

In reply, Colin gave him a wicked grin, leaned over and flicked the butt off the ledge. “Hey!” Ryan protested, as his next-to-last smoke plummeted four stories to the ground.

Colin smirked. “I’m looking out for you.”

“That was only cute when I said it,” Ryan grumbled. He got up on his knees to peer over the edge, briefly wondering if he could find the damn thing if he went downstairs later. With his luck, it had probably landed in a pile of dog shit. Sighing, he dropped back down with a thump. “You are an evil, evil man, Mochrie.”

Colin had grown quiet. Ryan glanced at his face and waited for him to speak. When he didn’t, he nudged Colin’s ankle with his foot. “Hey.”

“Ow. Watch it, Bigfoot.” Ryan ignored the insult.

“What’s wrong?”

Colin sighed like he’d rather not talk about it, but he didn’t try to pretend it was nothing. “I talked to my parents this morning,” he said. “Graeme got into university on full scholarship.”

Ryan waited. Colin glanced over and shrugged. “I don’t know. They didn’t exactly come out and say it, but it was implied… ‘Well, at least your brother isn’t wasting _his_ life’.”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean.” After dropping out of high school to pursue a career in comedy, instead of going into military service… well, he wasn’t exactly his parents’ pride and joy. And now Colin, who’d given up a scholarship of his own to join the League, was being shown up by a younger brother. Judging by Colin’s face, it hurt just as much. It made Ryan want to hug him. But they didn’t do that, so instead he settled for scooting a little closer so their shoulders were touching. He felt Colin shift position so he was leaning into him.

“Anyway…” Colin continued, “I’m happy for him, too. He’s doing exactly what he wants, and that’s great. But… so am I. And _I_ think _that’s_ great. It would just be nice if they thought so too… you know?”

Ryan thought of the house he’d grown up in. His mother’s side table with four framed pictures of her other sons in military uniforms. More than once Ryan had seen her look at them, then at him, and barely suppress a sigh. His father was more open about his disappointment. A lot more. It was part of the reason he’d left home as soon as he could.

“Yeah. I know.”

Colin looked up and nodded. “I know you know.” They held each other’s glance for a minute. Ryan was pretty sure Colin was thinking the same thing he was. _Thank god. Someone who really **gets** me_.

Colin grinned then, looking like his old self, and gave Ryan’s shoulder a gentle nudge with his own. He stood up, stretching. “Let’s go in.”

“Not yet,” Ryan protested, scrambling to his feet. “I have to show you something, remember?”

“Well, where is it?”

“It’s not here yet.”

Colin sighed. “Ryan…”

“A couple more minutes. It’ll be worth it.”

“Nothing’s worth freezing to death.”

Ryan looked at Colin. He was shivering. “What kind of Canuck are you?”

“A cold one.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Come here …” He grasped Colin’s wrist and tugged him closer. Standing behind him, he draped his arms across Colin’s chest, shielding him from the chill. “Better?”

Colin was a little stiff in his arms. “We’ve got to stop meeting this way.”

Before he could reply, Ryan saw it. He pointed. “Look.”

Colin’s gaze followed Ryan’s up to the sky. His eyes widened. “Whoa.”

Ryan nodded agreement, eyes glued to the horizon. Waves of blue-green light were rolling through the darkness, bouncing and shimmering and illuminating the entire sky with an ethereal glow.

Colin stared. “What _is_ that?”

“Northern lights,” Ryan explained. “I read in the paper this morning that you’d be able to see them tonight. Pretty cool, huh?” As they watched, the colors intensified. Reds, purples, greens and blues so bright they cast shadows on the rooftop and on Colin’s upturned face. They pulsated and danced across the horizon. Ryan didn’t have the words to describe it. The sky looked _alive_.

“It’s like… something alive out there,” Colin said wonderingly.

Ryan smiled, but didn’t tell him what he’d been thinking. Colin tilted his head further back to get a better look, bumping Ryan’s shoulder. He shook his head in amazement. “I’ve heard of this, but I never saw it. I didn’t really know what it was.”

“I saw them once before when I was a kid, camping on Mount Rainier.”

“That must have been a great view,” Colin murmured, still transfixed.

“Yeah.” Ryan shifted his eyes briefly from the sky to look around at the shabby roof of his run-down building in his cruddy neighborhood, then at the awed expression on Colin’s face. “But I don’t know… I think this is better.”

Colin tore his eyes from the sky long enough to smile at Ryan, then looked up again. A few strands of his hair, blown out of place by the breeze from their careful arrangement around his thin spot, tickled Ryan’s cheek, but he didn’t move away. Now that he thought of it, it was kind of chilly, and Colin’s weight against his chest was comfortably warm. Ryan tightened his arms around Colin a little as they both gazed upward in silent awe as the northern lights performed their eerie, majestic dance across the Vancouver sky.


End file.
